Does being together in a room beat Zoom?
Staff want to talk to each other face-to-face and fear the rise of a digital-first approach, finds new research

In 1994, BT famously launched the ‘it’s good to talk’ slogan to try and convince a staccato British public to chat for a bit longer and more languorously. It made sense. The more people talked, the more money it made.
And it seems it’s only taken 27 years (and a pandemic) for some employers to also realise that longer, but real-life exchanges are more fruitful and better for staff and their bottom lines too.
New research from AI workplace trainer Soffos.ai among 666 decision-makers and more than 3,000 other UK adults finds that lack of face-to-face interaction has seen 48% of managers want the return of more opportunities for in-person collaboration. Why? They see its absence as ruining their product or brand.